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Stopthepave
On April 22, 2011, 200 concerned community members took over an active construction site on the banks of the Fraser River in Delta (between 10749 and 10739, River Road), obstructing work on a key portion of the contentious South Fraser Perimeter Road freeway. They planted trees on the road bed and set up a full campsite on Friday April 22 - International Mother Earth Day. About 25 are currently camped out, vowing to stay and stop the freeway they call a ‘climate crime.’ They expect that the camp will grow as as word of the blockade spreads "Gateway's goal with the South Fraser Perimeter Highway is to triple truck traffic. What they don't tell you is that means triple the pollution, too," says North Delta resident Richelle Giberson. "I live three doors up from where this freeway is slated to go. My windows get coated in black soot from the truck exhaust already; it scares me to think about what it could be like in a few years.” “We are planting these trees on the freeway route to demonstrate that we are fed up with battling asthma and cancers,” explains PJ Lilley, a Surrey organizer with StopThePave.org. “As a mom with kids at a school near the highway ‘fall-out zone’, I want to see a stop to the insanity of paving over our last green spaces on the Fraser River just to bring more trucks and pollution to our communities. Christy Clark’s government is not putting ‘families first’, money must go to transit, schools and health care instead.” The province is spending an estimated $2 billion on the new South Fraser freeway and is planning to spend up to $1 billion more on the North Fraser Perimeter Road through New Westminster. Meanwhile, this week, Translink is cutting bus service. "TransLink has cut bus service to save a few million, and meanwhile the province is spending billions on freeways which increase our dependency on cars and tar sands oil," explains Bob Ages of the Council of Canadians national board. “1950’s thinking won’t solve the problems of the 21st century.” "We must stop spending public money to make the climate crisis worse, and shift the money to solutions like public transit and electric trains" says Eric Doherty with the Council of Canadians Vancouver / Burnaby Chapter. “It’s time for all concerned people to take a stand against these freeway projects that are cooking our planet.” The freeway site occupation is an initiative of local residents and climate justice activists from StopThePave.org, local Council of Canadians chapters, and the Critical Criminology Working Group at Kwantlen University, and is endorsed by the over 20 groups listed at www.StopThePave.org Media Inquiries: PJ Lilley, Surrey mother, member of StopthePave.org (CAMP INFO LINE) 604 355 2771 Richelle Giberson, North Delta resident 604 585 1142 Bob Ages, Delta resident and Council of Canadians national board member 604 760 6786 Eric Doherty, Council of Canadians Vancouver/Burnaby Chapter 604 346 6994 Photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30261607@N00/tags/stopthepave/ (high-res versions available upon request). Video at: http://vimeo.com/22800044 Directions to the site at: http://stopthepave.org/getting-stop-pave-camp